1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910300011303321

Autore

Manfredi Carla

Titolo

Robert Louis Stevenson’s Pacific Impressions : Photography and Travel Writing, 1888–1894 / / by Carla Manfredi

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Cham : , : Springer International Publishing : , : Imprint : Palgrave Macmillan, , 2018

ISBN

3-319-98313-X

Edizione

[1st ed. 2018.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (269 pages) : illustrations

Collana

Palgrave Studies in Nineteenth-Century Writing and Culture, , 2634-6494

Disciplina

828.809

Soggetti

Literature, Modern—19th century

Photography

Culture

Australasia

Nineteenth-Century Literature

Australasian Culture

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

1. Introduction: Stevenson and Early Photography in the Pacific Islands -- 2. “We are Savages”: Cannibal Performances in the Marquesas -- 3. “An Extraordinary State of Affairs”: the Hawaiian Embassy to Sāmoa -- 4. “Incongruities of Scale”: Encountering the Atolls of Kiribati -- 5. “Native Movement”: Islanders and the Janet Nicoll -- 6. “Little House in the Bush”: Specters of Vailima -- 7. Conclusion -- 8. Appendix: About the Robert Louis Stevenson’s Photograph Albums.

Sommario/riassunto

This book tackles photography’s role during Robert Louis Stevenson’s travels throughout the Pacific Island region and is the first study of his family’s previously unpublished photographs. Cutting across disciplinary boundaries, the book integrates photographs with letters, non-fiction, and poetry, and includes much unpublished material. The original readings of photographs and non-fiction highlight Stevenson’s engagement with colonial ideology and reality and advance new arguments about Victorian travel, settlement, and colonialisms in the Pacific. Like the Stevensons, the book moves from the Marquesas to the



atolls of the Gilbert Islands in Micronesia; from the Kingdom of Hawai‘i’s political ambitions to Samoan plantations and the Stevensons’ settlement at Vailima. Central to this study is the notion that Pacific history and Pacific Island cultures matter to the interpretation of Stevenson's work, and a rigorous historical and cultural contextualization ensures that local details structure literary and photographic interpretation. The book’s historical grounding is key to its insightful conclusions regarding travel, settlement, photography, and colonialism.